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2013

Pineapple Coconut Cake

From: Donna 
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2013 3:04 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: Ms. Lean's Pineapple Coconut cake recipe

Hi Uncle Phaedrus!
 
I'm hoping you are able to locate Ms. Lean's recipe for pineapple coconut cake. The recipe was originally published on Shine Food - Yahoo.  
The actual link to the recipe was to the Our Reality Magazine website. Any assistance you can provide would be greatly appreciated! 
Thanks in advance!

   a.. Pineapple Coconut Cake | Shine Food - Yahoo! Shine
  shine.yahoo.com/shine-food/pineapple-coconut-cake-310388.html

Hello Donna,

I found the original page in The Internet Archives:

It's Our Reality Magazine

Note that the name of the cake is “Earlene’s”, not “Ms Lean’s”.

Phaed

Earlene’s Down Home Cuisine

Pineapple Coconut Cake 

Ingredients:

4 Jumbo or 5 large eggs
2 1/2 sticks of Butter (do not get unsalted)
2 cups of Sugar
1 cup Whole Milk 
3 cups of Cake Flour, Sifted (I prefer Swans Down)
3 teaspoons baking powder (must be fresh, within 3 months old)
5 teaspoons pure lemon extract
Pam Baking Spray

Preheat oven at 350 degrees. Place in oven, two 9 inch cake pans with butter for melting. Butter does not need to be completely melted, 
but very soft. Do not wash cake pans after you use the butter.

Use a hand mixer and in large bowl beat eggs together. Add melted butter, and sugar and continue beating. In order, while continuing mixing, 
add flour, milk and flavor. Increase mixer speed to high for 15 minutes. Continue mixing until you can see bubbles popping up in the batter. 
You should begin to see lots and lots of bubbles popping up. Take a big spoon and pull the batter from the edges of the bowl to ensure
 thorough mixing. The total mixing time should be around 30 minutes. 

Take the baking pans and spray with Pam, then lightly sprinkle some cake flour around the bottom and sides of the pan. If you use Pam 
spray that has flour in it, you do not need to sprinkle the pan with cake flour. Pour even amounts of the batter into the two baking pans. 
Place both cake pans on the middle rack of the oven at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes until light brown. This is for a 2 layer, for a 3 layer use 
20 minutes until light brown.

One way of testing to see if cake is done, stick a toothpick in the center of cake. When you pull it out there should be no batter on the toothpick. 

Take cake out of oven and let cool for at least 3 hours before adding toppings.

Icing

2 1/4 cups of sugar
1 1/4 stick of butter 
1 1/2 cups of milk
2 small or 1 large can of crushed pineapple
1/2 bag of coconut

Combine milk, 2 cups of sugar and 1 stick butter in medium sauce pan and cook at medium heat for 30 minutes. Icing will become thick like a cream sauce. 

Separate pineapple juice from pineapples. 

Combine 1/4 butter, 1/4 sugar and pineapples in medium sauce pan under medium heat for about 1/2 hour.

The secret to making this cake super moist is to take the pineapple juice and spread over both layers of the cake. Take both layers and spread 
the cooked pineapples over them. Next spread the icing over one layer, then sprinkle coconut over the layer. Place the second layer of cake on 
top of the first layer and spread the icing over it. Sprinkle the coconut over the cake, be sure to cover sides also. Let the cake settle for 
a few hours before cutting.

For best results, let the cake sit overnight before cutting. This allows for the full flavor to be enjoyed from the cake.

You now have a scrumptious dessert. Enjoy!!!
--------------------------------------------------------

Oh my goodness...thank you so much!! My daughter and I made this cake over 3 years ago and have never forgotten about it. We couldn't find our copy 
and just had to find this recipe to make it again...I truly appreciate you sending this!
 
Donna

Jon Hagel Cookies

From: josh  
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2013 10:01 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: 'jan hagle'? cookies

Sent from Windows Mail
In the early 70’s...70-72 my mother had  recipe cards that came with a baking product.  I cannot recall what product , it might have been bisquick.  
The cards were holiday cookies from around the world.  One particular favorite was one I pronounced phonetically as ‘yon hagel’.  I am almost certain 
it started with a J.  I am also pretty certain it was either Dutch or Scandinavian.  Finally, I believe it was on a shortbread crust and it had walnut 
along with other ingredients.  It was a favorite of ours.  I have searched every spelling and combo of my ‘remembered’ name with no luck.  Perhaps you 
have come across it? If so I would be grateful for the recipe.
Thanks,
Josh

Hello Josh,

See below. It may have been a Gold Medal flour recipe that you recall for this Dutch cookie. See below.

Phaed

Jon Hagel

1 c. butter or margarine
1 c. sugar
1 egg, separated
2 c. Gold Medal Flour
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tbsp. water
1/2 to 3/4 c. finely chopped walnuts

  Lightly grease jelly roll pan (15 1/2 x 10 x 1).  Mix butter, sugar and egg YOLK only.  Blend flour and cinnamon.  
Stir into butter mixture.  Pat and spread into pan.  Beat egg WHITE and 1 tablespoon water until frothy.  Brush over dough. 
Sprinkle with nuts.  Bake 20 to 25 minutes until lightly brown.  Cut immediately.  Makes 50. 

Hush Puppies

From: Margaret
Sent: Sunday, July 07, 2013 3:38 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: Timm in Oregon

Hi Phaed,
Timm in Oregon amazes me.  He must have the world's largest collection of recipes.  He also seems to know a lot about cooking.  Is he a chef?  
Please tell him he has at least one admirer, although I suspect there are more.


Also, here's a request.  I had always read that Hush Puppies got their name from fish fries in which people threw balls of fried dough to 
hush the hungry dogs (I'm not saying I believed this, just that it's always been the story).  Today I was watching something on TV about 
the origins of fast foods and it said that the cornbread balls got their name because they were thrown by escaping slaves to quiet any 
following dogs.  This sounds totally ridiculous to me, since what slaves would have a sack of hush puppies with them and hush puppies 
would just make dogs find them easier, plus probably many more reasons.  Anyway, have you ever heard this and have you ever seen anything 
documented about their origin?  
Thanks as always,
Margaret

Hello Margaret,

Timm has been a great help to me and my readers, as has James with cafeteria recipes and many, many others who have helped locate recipes over the years. I salute them all. What I know of Timm is that he is a former chef with a huge recipe collection.

Hush puppies are one of those food items whose origin trails off into the realm of speculation, as does the origin of fried chicken and many other foods. There have been several proposed origins for “hush puppies”, but no decent documentation for any of them. It’s certain that fried balls of cornmeal were eaten and called “corn dodgers” and “fried mush” and other names even before they became known as “hush puppies,” so the question is of the origin of the name rather than the dish. The name "hush puppies" first appeared in print in 1918. Several hypotheses for the name’s origin are listed on these sites:

What's Cooking America and Food Timeline

The most common, and to my thinking the most likely, is that when cooks were frying cornmeal battered fish at an outdoor fish fry, the family dogs would hang around the cooking area and whine. Sympathetic cooks would toss bits of fried cornmeal to them, and these became known as “hush puppies.” At first, these may have just been bits of fried batter from the frying fish, but some point, the cooks began make balls using the excess fish batter. They then began to serve them to diners with the fish and to mix in a bit of onion. In the South, when I was growing up, people often had outdoor “fish fries” with the fish being cornmeal battered catfish that were deep-fried in cast iron pots, so this hypothesis makes sense to me. I doubt that it worked as intended – anyone who has dogs knows that feeding them in this manner would only make them hang around and beg even more.

There are other speculative hypotheses, but no evidence for them:

There may be a Native American connection. After all, cornmeal was being eaten by Native Americans long before Columbus. It wouldn’t surprise me greatly if the word “hushpuppy” turned out to be originally derived from a similar-sounding Native American word.

There may be an African-American connection. The fish-frying cooks who first used the name "hushpuppies" or "hush puppies" may have been African-American. Again, there is no documentation that this is so. I had never heard the bit about escaping slaves. I checked a dozen or so reliable food history references, and this idea is never mentioned in any of them.

One word history writer, in “The Morris Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins”, says that, during hard times after the Civil War, some poor folks in the South were reduced to eating deep-fried salamanders. Since salamanders were also known as “mud puppies”, the dish was called “hush puppies” “because eating such lowly food was not something a southern wife would want known to her neighbors.” Maybe, but this one seems rather far-fetched to me. I grew up in the South, as did my father and grandfather before me, and I never, ever, heard any mention of eating deep-fried salamanders, while I did hear from them that hushpuppies got their name from bits of fried cornmeal being fed to the dogs at fish fries.

There is a restaurant in Florida, “Posey’s”, that claims to be the place where hushpuppies originated. However, printed use of the term “hushpuppies” predates Posey’s Restaurant by several years, and the pups themselves predate Posey’s by decades.

Phaed

Hey Phaed:

Tell Margaret thank you for the compliment. 

Hush Puppies recipes are now found all over the United States and local chefs are adding new ingredients and coming up with some very interesting and 
tasty hush puppies. Some of the ingredients include celery and garlic, jalapeńos, seeds, nuts and grains, Also seafood is a popular addition such as 
clams, oysters, shrimp, crayfish and various types of fish. Hush Puppy recipes are easily found by searching the Internet. Below is and example of one 
of the recipes.       

Timm in Oregon

Sweet Potato Hush Puppies

Ingredients:

Oil for frying, such as canola, vegetable or peanut 
8-1/2 ounce box Jiffy corn bread or muffin mix 
1/4 cup cornmeal 
1/4 cup onions, finely chopped
1 large egg 
1/2 cup sweet potato puree 
4 strips bacon, cooked and crumbled 

Instructions:

Add the oil to a heavy bottomed pot to 1/3 depth of the pot and place over medium heat or use a deep fryer.
 
In a large bowl thoroughly combine all of the ingredients until well mixed . When the oil reaches 350F degrees, carefully drop the batter by the 
heaping tablespoonful into the oil or for larger hush puppies use a cookie or ice cream scoop. Fry the hush puppies in batches until golden brown 
and cooked through, about 3 to 4 minutes or a bit longer for larger hushpuppies. Remove from the oil and drain on a tray lined with paper towels

Note: Another variation is to substitute pumpkin (unseasoned or season) puree instead of the sweet potato puree and omit the bacon. You can also 
add shelled pumpkin seeds to the pumpkin puree.

Merita Chocolate Layer Cake

From: Barbara  
Sent: Monday, July 08, 2013 11:46 AM
To: mailto:phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: Chocolate layer cake from Merita Bakery

Good Morning,

I hope that you can help me find a recipe that is no longer being made.  Back in the mid 60’s; Merita Bakery in Orlando used to make a 6 or 7 layer yellow cake 
with chocolate icing.  The cakes were cut in half and sold like that.  The chocolate icing was very thick and could be “pealed” off to eat.  
Do you have any information on the recipe used?

Thanks,

Barbara

Hello Barbara,

Merita Bakery was bought out by Hostess and was distributed nationally. Their status is undetermined at the moment, since Hostess went bankrupt. As they were a commercial bakery, no home recipes for their icing would be available, and I had no success looking for copycats.

The only suggestion that I have is that it might have been a chocolate or fudge buttercream frosting. Pepperidge Farm also makes or made a cake like that. I used to buy them when I had a cake craving. Those also had a thick chocolate icing that you could peel off, at least until it got too warm and soft. There is a photo of a Pepperidge Farm 3-layer “Golden Cake” with chocolate icing here:

Pepperidge Farm

Phaed

From: Helen  
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2014 3:54 PM
To: phaedrus@hungrybrowser.com 
Subject: Found Cake 

Just found your spot through FB.  Enjoying looking at all the yummy recipes.

07 08 2013 some one asked about a Merita bakery cake.  I also grew up with this cake in the NC mountains and loved it.  
There’s a recipe on Pinterest is a close duplicate.  I really think it is better because it does not have the preservatives 
like the bakery cake had and some times caused an almost bitter taste to the cake.  It’s called Smith Island Cake.  
It is really delicious.

Thanks,
Helen 

Hello Helen,

Thanks for the tip about Smith Island Cake. There are Smith Island Cake recipes on these sites, with photos:

Washington Post

Saveur

Cooking Channel TV

Phaed


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